BY THE NUMBERS: BUSTER DRAYTON By Don Stradley • Illustration by KronkAAArt During the early part of his career, Moses Buster Drayton had a habit of screeching during fights, giving off a noise that one journalist compared to “the shriek of a demented parrot and the sound of a garbage truck backing up.” Drayton couldn’t explain where it came from. “That’s why they call me ‘The Demon,’” he said. “If I could control it, it wouldn’t come out. Something inside me just gets fed up with all the hits I’m taking and I just start howling. I’m not possessed, as far as I know. Whoever fights me … it’s me and the devil against that person, two against one.” The Demon’s best punch? “Whatever I can catch him with.” They don’t make ’em like Buster Drayton anymore. Here’s his colorful story by the numbers. Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The prize was the vacant IBF junior middleweight title. Santos had previously held the fledgling group’s title but had been stripped when he took time off for a knee problem. Drayton, a Philadelphia veteran who had overcome an uneven early career to win 11 of his last 12 contests, was training to fight Davey Moore for the vacant crown. When Moore was injured in training, however, Drayton found himself without an opponent. Enter Santos as Moore’s replacement, fighting to regain the title of which he’d been stripped. The bout, the main event of a Showtime tripleheader, was a bruising 15-round contest that was difficult to score but delightful to watch. The southpaw Santos was effective, as one would imagine a representative of Puerto Rico at the 1976 Montreal Olympics would be, circling and jabbing, sometimes stopping to trade blows with Drayton, while the Philadelphian was the heavier puncher, scoring throughout the fight with clubbing right hooks. As the rounds wore on, the styles became amplified, with Santos making bigger circles around the ring and Drayton’s haymakers becoming more exaggerated. At times, Drayton looked like a stumbling amateur; twice in the seventh he missed so wildly that his own momentum rounds with Carlos Santos for the vacant IBF junior middleweight belt » On June 4, 1986, Drayton challenged Santos in the
Indeed, Drayton was considered a journeyman at the time, a 32-year-old former Marine sergeant with a record of 27-9-1. He was best known for a long stint as a sparring partner for Marvelous Marvin Hagler, from whom Drayton said he’d learned much. Hagler happened to be ringside working as a commentator alongside Gil Clancy and Tim Ryan. “He deserved to win,” Hagler said of his old spar mate. “This guy has all the heart in the world, and he finally got a break.” Drayton thanked Jesus and made no mention of any devils, then joined a post-fight celebration in his hotel room that consisted of a bottle of champagne and approximately one hundred White Tower hamburgers. “It was kind of a poor people’s party,” Drayton said, “but we had a lot of fun.”
fights in Atlantic City » Though Drayton was a Philly fighter, he did much of his fighting an hour away in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Among Drayton’s best Atlantic City moments was a seventh-round
TKO victory over future titlist Duane Thomas at The Sands in 1982. His worst was a third-round knockout loss to WBA junior middleweight titleholder Julian Jackson at Harrah’s in 1988.
fight at the Blue Horizon » Drayton would’ve been a favorite at Philadelphia’s most venerated fight venue had he been born into an earlier era, but his only appearance at the Blue Horizon was in 1989, long after his heyday in France. On short notice and well past his prime, Drayton
fights in France » Drayton’s title run was unusual in that he fought almost entirely in France. He made two title defenses in the “country of love,” scoring 10th-round stoppages of Davey Moore and Said Skouma, and
met Brinatty Maquilon, an unheralded and unexceptional Colombian. When the mediocre Maquilon scored an eighth-round TKO over Drayton, the Demon knew his career was near the end. “Mother Nature doesn’t stand still for nobody,” Drayton said. “Not even me. I’m no privileged character.”
was victorious in two non-title bouts, beating Benito Fernandez in six and Juan Alonso Villa in two. He lost the title in his third defense, dropping a unanimous decision to Matthew Hilton in Montreal. Drayton’s French connection was part of a globe- trotting career that also saw him fight in England (including a violent seventh-round stoppage of British hopeful Mark Kaylor in 1984), Italy and South Africa. In all, he fought a dozen times outside of America. Yet aside from one visit to the Eiffel Tower, Drayton did little sightseeing. “We don’t hang around in the other guy’s town after a fight,” Drayton told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1987. “We were on a plane for home the next day.”
when he retired » Drayton (1952-2022) fought sporadically for the next few years, plying his trade in such backwaters as Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and Lombardo’s in Randolph, Massachusetts.
He retired in 1995 with a record of 40-15-1 with 28 knockouts, leaving behind a legacy of thrills. After boxing, Drayton was a police officer in Philadelphia, having graduated from three police academies – two federal and one municipal. He was married twice, had seven children, and his accolades include inductions into the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003 and the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009. Whether he was knocking guys out or taking his lumps, whether he was boxing smartly or swinging at the air, Drayton created a unique page for himself in the history of Philadelphia boxers. Those who saw Drayton won’t forget him, nor will the unfortunates whom he hit on the chin.
trip to the canvas against Hilton » The problem with being an older champion is that you’ll eventually lose your title to a fresher, younger challenger. This was the case when 33-year-old Drayton faced Canada’s
21-year-old wunderkind, Hilton, at the Montreal Forum on June 27, 1987. Dropped in the first round, Drayton dominated some of the middle rounds and hurt Hilton badly in the 14th, but Hilton, flying on sheer adrenaline, couldn’t be slowed, not even by Drayton’s best bombs. The judges of this grueling contest scored the bout for Hilton by scores of 146-139, 144-140 and 147-138. “I think he’s a great fighter,” Hilton said of the man he’d just beaten. “In some ways, he was the better fighter.”
took him to the canvas. But even if Drayton appeared to tire himself out with his roundhouse
swings, he found the energy to rock Santos more than once in the late rounds. By the end of the 15th, there wasn’t much to separate them. Drayton won by majority decision. “I know a lot of you look at me as an up-and-down fighter,” Drayton said. “I was on an upstroke tonight.”
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